Within the known prior art considerable attention has been given to conserving waste heat by converting it into useful work. While a great number of concepts have been proposed to meet this need, they have not until now proven to be practical, efficient and/or cost effective. Such prior art references include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,266,404, 3,996,745, and 6,195,992 and 6,715,313. Wherein, each apparatus teaches a modification of the “well known” Stirling cycle engine. Many variations of Stirling cycle engines have been conceived but each have inherent drawbacks and disadvantages that the present invention recognizes, addresses and overcomes in a new manner heretofore not taught. For example, these engines use carbon fuels, include numerous components and lots of moving parts, and are limited to operate only at high temperatures, unlike the present invention.
Other types of devices that convert heat into energy include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,964,176 and 6,334,323. Each of which teach a heat transfer engine having cooling and heating modes of reversible operation. Wherein, the engine includes a rotor structure that is rotatably supported within a stator structure. The stator has primary and secondary heat exchanging chambers in thermal isolation from each other. The rotor has primary and secondary heat transferring portions within which a closed fluid flow circuit is embodied. The closed fluid flow circuit within the rotor has a spiraled fluid-return passageway extending along its rotary shaft, and is charged with a refrigerant that is automatically circulated between the primary and secondary heat transferring portions of the rotor when the rotor is rotated within an optimized angular velocity range under the control of a temperature-responsive system controller.
For more than a century, man has used various techniques for transferring heat between spaced apart locations for both heating and cooling purposes. One major heat transfer technique is based on the reversible adiabatic heat transfer cycle. In essence, this cycle is based on the “well known” principle, in which energy, in the form of heat, can be carried from one location at a first temperature, to another location at a second temperature. This process can be achieved by using the heat energy to change the state of matter of a carrier fluid, such as a refrigerant, from one state to another state in order to absorb the heat energy at the first location, and to release the absorbed heat energy at the second location by transforming the state of the carrier fluid back to its original state. By using the reversible heat transfer cycle, it is possible to construct various types of machines for both heating and/or cooling functions.
Most conventional air conditioning systems in commercial operation use the reversible heat transfer cycle, described above. In general, air conditioning systems transfer heat from one environment (i.e. an indoor room) to another environment (i.e. the outdoors) by cyclically transforming the state of a refrigerant (i.e. working fluid) while it is being circulated throughout the system. Typically, the state transformation of the refrigerant is carried out in accordance with a vapor-compression refrigeration cycle, which is an instance of the more generally known “reversible adiabatic heat transfer cycle”.
According to the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle, the refrigerant in its saturated vapor state enters a compressor and undergoes a reversible adiabatic compression. The refrigerant then enters a condenser, wherein heat is liberated to its environment causing the refrigerant to transform into its saturated liquid state while being maintained at a substantially constant pressure. Leaving the condenser in its saturated liquid state, the refrigerant passes through a throttling (i.e. metering) device, wherein the refrigerant undergoes adiabatic throttling. Thereafter, the refrigerant enters the evaporator and absorbs heat from its environment, causing the refrigerant to transform into its vapor state while being maintained at a substantially constant pressure. Consequently, as a liquid or gas, such as air, is passed over the evaporator during the evaporation process, the air is cooled. In practice, the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle deviates from the ideal cycle described above due primarily to the pressure drops associated with refrigeration flow and heat transfer to or from the ambient surroundings.
Although the prior art is functional for cooling and heating purposes they are still not energy efficient and/or they do not produce energy that can be used to power the system and also supply excess energy usable for work.
Still further such systems are much too complicated and include numerous components all of which the present invention eliminates. The present invention not only has been simplified, but also more importantly teaches new technology for converting the heat into usable energy. Namely, when a liquid refrigerant and hot oil are combined result in a physical reaction that produces a highly pressurized foam which in turn produces usable energy that can be used to power the system and/or transferred to a rotary shaft for work.